The Deep, Deep Love of Jesus

When Jesus had spoken these words, He lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son that the Son may glorify You, since You have given Him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom You have given Him. And this is eternal life, that they know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. I glorified You on earth, having accomplished the work that You gave Me to do. And now, Father, glorify Me in Your own presence with the glory that I had with You before the world existed.

I have manifested Your name to the people whom You gave Me out of the world. Yours they were, and You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word. Now they know that everything that You have given Me is from You. For I have given them the words that You gave Me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from You; and they have believed that You sent Me. I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours. All Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine, and I am glorified in them. And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to You. Holy Father, keep them in Your name, which You have given Me, that they may be one, even as We are one. While I was with them, I kept them in Your name, which You have given Me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to You, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them Your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that You take them out of the world, but that You keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth. As you sent Me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate Myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.

I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word, that they may all be one, just as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You have sent Me. The glory that You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one even as We are one, I in them and You in Me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that You sent Me and loved them even as You loved Me. Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, may be with Me where I am, to see My glory that You have given Me because You loved Me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, even though the world does not know You, I know You, and these know that You have sent Me. I made known to them Your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which You have loved Me may be in them, and I in them.”

John 17:1-26

One September afternoon after soccer practice, my five-year-old son, sitting beside me in the car, suddenly declared, “When I grow up, I am going to have a really big house!” “Oh really?” I responded, taken aback. “Okay—that will be great.” He continued on with his future plans, and finally I asked, “I wonder what I will be doing?” He looked at me as if surprised I would even question it, and said, “Well—you will live with me.” He was a child, and to him, a loving relationship meant continuing presence. He didn’t know the patterns and complexities of life on earth, good and bad, and he certainly hadn’t experienced rejection or loss or great sorrow. To him, you stay with the people you love and keep close to those who love you.

Jesus experienced life on earth; He understood all of its complexities and sorrows. And so the night before He died, gathered with His disciples, Jesus prayed aloud about His expectations and about His desires for those He loved. Judas was gone; these men remained, and He prayed in their hearing for Himself, for them, and for all who would follow Him in the future.

As His great sacrifice loomed before Him, looking “toward heaven,” Jesus humbly asked for renewal to His Father’s presence—to the glorious harmony of the Trinity, to divine experience of joyful peace, effortless rule, and eternal, life-giving love.

Jesus prayed next for those there with Him, who must have felt shocked, confused, and yet illumined by what they had already heard that evening. He had always protected them, had revealed the Father to them with teaching and with miracles; and they had “kept His word.” Did they understand, trust, or obey Him perfectly? No, but in the Father’s grace they believed in Him, the Son of God.

He asked His Father to protect them from the vicious schemes of Satan. Then He asked the Father to sanctify them—to set them apart for His purposes, as the candlestick of the temple was saved and separated for holy use. They must also be personally holy in their thoughts, words, and actions, which would happen, He said, through powerful truth—the truth of God’s Word. The message of salvation through Jesus and the salvation-life it would bring by His Spirit would make them holy—as the Father who loves them is holy. For this, Jesus said, He sanctified Himself—set Himself apart as a sin-offering, for His people, whom He loved.

And then Jesus added that His prayers were not for these 11 disciples only, but for all who would believe in Him through their message. Jesus’ glorious prayer is for us too, though we are often faithless, fearful, neglectful, and disobedient.

Do you desire greater connection and community? Anticipating His own heavenly reunion, Jesus prayed for us to be united together, even as God the Trinity is unified. This is the love of Jesus.

Have you felt isolated, rejected, or a failure in the complexities of relationships in the world? “Father,” our Lord prayed, “I want those you have given Me to be with Me where I am, and to see My glory…”  This is no naïve hope or childish whim. This is love that welcomes you into His presence and shares with you His life.

“O the deep, deep love of Jesus,  
  Tis a heaven of heavens to me  
   And it lifts me up to glory,  
   For it lifts me up to Thee.”  
           —Samuel Trevor Francis